The Interdimensional War
by WarioMan3K
Summary: DCC #9 of my fanfic series. Humans and Bombermen had been migrating with each other on planets Earth and Bomber, striving to work together for the betterment of their own kind on both worlds to prepare for the inevitable invasion from an ominous threat known as the Bacterion Empire. Assisting in the operation are none other than the six heroic Contras. RATED T WITH FANTASY VIOLENCE
1. Prologue

DCC #9, confirmed by yours truly to be the final entry in my revamped Diamond City Chronicles series, has officially begun! Since I'm still in the process of finishing the original version on DeviantART, it may be a while before I've completed it. But I will still do my best overall, so as always, enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER: WarioWare is a property of Nintendo; Contra and Gradius belong to Konami; Bomberman is owned by Hudson Soft despite the company being absorbed unto Konami as of March 2012. Everything else not mentioned here, let alone Final Fantasy, are properties of their respective owners, save for my Bomberman OCs/fan characters.**

* * *

-The Interdimensional War-

Prologue

BILL'S P.O.V.

While we, the People of Earth, still remember the Alien Wars and World War III, there was something else of utmost importance to take into account...

Ever since the discovery of stolen Bacterion warships hidden within the classified Area 51, and the treacherous General Shepherd's untimely demise, the people of Earth were eventually concerned that the Bacterions might have already picked it up. That was long before we, the Contras, took out Shepherd's personal army along with Project: ACT ZERO and the ultimate plan to eradicate every living Bomberman in the universe (not to mention replace them with the ones that he'll have personally created). Well, it was Aaron, Ami, Blaze Bomber, and Arctic Bomber who took out the stolen warships at the source while Lance and I helped redirect the people of Diamond City to safety...

We, the People of both planets Earth and Bomber eventually began coexisting since then, working hard to repair the damages that Red Falcon inflicted during World War III. In addition to such, we needed to work together in order to prepare for the inevitable invasion, for if we are ill-equipped by the time the Bacterions arrive from another galaxy to wreak havoc, all would be lost. And Red Falcon, Sniper Bomber, and Axe Bomber would be made virtually invincible if they ever get revived along the way.

Speaking of which, chances are the Bacterions can and will resurrect those three warmongers back to life, with or without warning. None can really tell beyond any prediction, that they would return before or during the inevitable invasion on Earth. But beyond that, the oncoming conflict may not as well be called "World War IV" anymore, despite political claims from the United States. We may as well call that the Interdimensional War, for if push comes to shove, we're definitely gonna need help from the Vic Viper, said to be the sole protector of planet Gradius in another dimension.

However, even before then, it came as no surprise that we Contras would have to make an appearance in the court of law. We did destroy Area 51 in an effort to prevent the Bacterion warships from coming out to desecrate our world...anyway, as it turned out from Penny Crygor and Blaze Bomber's research, Shepherd and his "Shadow Company" were merely part of an even bigger organization: the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Seems like they weren't too happy about us blowing up a bunch of Bacterion technology that one of their loyal associates "brought back" from another dimension. But from my personal experience, as well as our knowledge of the _Alien_ movie series, this megacorporation is known more for their sudden interest in bio-weaponry. All we can do at this point is defend ourselves without instigating a hostile response from the Weyland-Yutani Corporation...

END P.O.V.

* * *

And that concludes the prologue; I'll have the first chapter up shortly.


	2. Heroes on trial

First chapter's here, and from what you can tell in its title, our heroes are bound to be on trial - not that they're too surprised.

**DISCLAIMER: WarioWare is a property of Nintendo; Contra and Gradius belong to Konami; Bomberman is owned by Hudson Soft despite the company being absorbed unto Konami as of March 2012. Everything else not mentioned here, let alone Final Fantasy, are properties of their respective owners, save for my Bomberman OCs/fan characters.**

* * *

Chapter 1: Heroes on trial

[Opening BGM: Stage Select (Bomberman 64: The Second Attack!)]

On March 15, 20XX, history was altered by the malevolent golden-armored "king" Sirius, thought to have been utterly destroyed last year before our 3-day vacation on Dinosaur Land. With Arctic Bomber, Cheerful White, and Cute Pink miraculously immune to the effects (though it could have been sheer luck thanks to the CrygorCopter's force field), they were the only ones capable of utilizing a time machine to travel to the past and undo the damage inflicted upon world history, especially the outcome of World War II. In the end, it turned out that Sirius was none other than the renegade General Shepherd reincarnated, whose consciousness was implanted into the lifeless body. But now that he is dead again, history had been restored to normal, in addition to Diamond City and its citizens.

Phoebe, Yuffie, Mona, 9-Volt's mom, and just about everybody else, including Arctic's fellow Contras, were all safe and sound. Even 9-Volt was his usual positive self again, much to White and Pink's relief. Though it was possible they could also have traveled to the time the Alien Wars had begun with Red Falcon and his brethren back on the surface of Earth, the fact their time machine was soon to be erased from history would have left them stranded and even dead before they'd prevent the death of 9-Volt's dad. Despite missing that one time-only opportunity, Arctic Bomber still felt satisfied with her mission to restore the space-time continuum as the time machine and all of its emergency supplies, including the anti-aging belts, disappeared out of existence. In fact, she and her two Bomber-pals didn't age a bit during their time-travelling journey.

The threesome explained everything about their journey, from going through the different eras to the shocking truth about General Shepherd being brought back to life through Colonel Bassad's insertion of his consciousness and personality into Sirius's dead, salvaged body. Arctic added the part about his source of power having emanated from Zelos Force, which immediately brought us to our attention without delay. Unsurprisingly, we could only have known about that spherical beast if we had already played some of the _Gradius_ games he showed up in as a boss, firstly being _Salamander_ (aka. _Lifeforce_). What we didn't know, however, was the fact that he somehow came to exist in real life due to Shepherd and Bassad's intervention.

"So let me get this straight," I summarized, "you actually went back in time to undo the damage to history to guarantee our well-being?"

"Yeah," answered White. "I wish we could've done the same for 9-Volt's dad right after we finished our job, but we didn't want to risk a paradox or getting ourselves killed..."

Ami nodded. "I understand. But at least you three did the right thing, by which I mean the best you could. We're just glad you're all okay in the end."

Bill added, "And this time, we'll see the last of Shepherd and his sick obsession with stealing Bacterion technology for his own personal gain."

"So, we're good to go, right?" wondered Lance. "We've wiped the remaining sources of the stolen warships off the face of the Earth, while Privates Jimbo and Sully showed their bravery by helping us stop the attack on Diamond City."

"It'll be a while before we're fully ready to work alongside the world leaders to repel the oncoming Bacterion invasion," answered Blaze Bomber. "If it means we must travel through space along the way to planet Gradius, we'll do it."

"Not just for the sake of innocent lives in the country which we live in," acknowledged Arctic Bomber, "but also the future of planets Earth and Bomber. Like you, Aaron, Ami, Bill, and Lance said: we are Contras!"

"As long as we're around to set things right, the forces of evil can't mess with history nor the freedom of Earth. However, we need to take into the account the destruction of Area 51, though it was the only way we could assure the stolen Bacterion warships wouldn't come out and terrorize mankind. What I'm saying is, we're likely to be held responsible even if General Shepherd's surviving followers are without a leader. Speaking of which, the organization he was in charge of doesn't really go by 'Shadow Company' or 'Blood Falcon' at all; in fact, its real name is the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. We recently discovered it within the last two weeks, but there just wasn't any time to explain in full detail because of the modifications Dr. Crygor, Penny, and I had been implementing on the Contra Cruiser then."

"Wait, wait, wait..." interrupted the Mistress of the Cold. "You're joking, right? THE Weyland-Yutani?"

"Apparently, they know how to hide its true identity real well, mostly to keep their motives classified from the public. Like with the _Alien_ movies Aaron and Ami told me about, the so-called Company desires to profit from their bio-weapons division even at the expense of other people's lives. If this means we must meet with them in the court of law, we'll be ready to explain the truth, only the truth, and nothing but the truth."

And thus, we all gathered up to listen in to the full details about Weyland-Yutani, including its co-leaders (with General Shepherd being one of them) and their "classified" interests in both the Xenomorph biology and Bacterion technology as well. Obviously, they have much to answer for their crimes, and not just the fact that General Shepherd personally ordered the complete destruction of Diamond City just to kill us and our friends for learning the truth about Project: ACT ZERO. Because we averted the attack prior to taking out the rest of the stolen Bacterion warships at the source, Area 51, the people of the United States won't have to put up with Weyland-Yutani's cover-up story about us being a group of terrorists. On top of that, we pretty much predicted they would sue us prior to doing everything in their power to cover themselves by spreading lies about us in the court of law. But with our evidence, which presents the whole truth about them and their so-called project, we should be able to prove them wrong when the time is right...

* * *

A few weeks later, Blaze Bomber scheduled a grand opening for the arrival of _Fix-It Felix Jr._, _Sugar Rush_, and _Hero's Duty_ into Diamond Arcade World alongside many other arcade games he and Penny Crygor had been ordering for quite some time, using the profits made from the past WarioWare games to date, as the building itself was funded by WarioWare Inc. just like with Wario Park. It wasn't until later tonight on the same day - April 4 - that Purple Basilisk and the five Chaotic Bombers got wind of the broadcast. Fueled by their desire to rebuild the Basilisk Dynasty after being banished to the underworld near the end of World War III, they pirated the technology for Wario's Telmet in order to break in to Game Central Station, intent on collating hordes of Cy-Bugs from _Hero's Duty_, the Xenomorphs from Global VR's _Aliens: Extermination_, and even the rogue Terminator robots from Raw Thrills' _Terminator Salvation_. Everything went out of control the next day, and it would have been the end of Diamond Arcade World had it not been for Wario and Arctic Bomber who helped Blaze Bomber take back the aforementioned building and its digital realm within.

Just when things were getting good, the vain and jealous Singing Beauty, Siren Bomber, mutinied on Purple Basilisk and expelled him and Warlock Bomber from Game Central Station, hellbent on killing Sergeant Tamora Jean "T.J." Calhoun and kidnapping Fix-It Felix for herself. Unfortunately for her, her attitude eventually resulted in her downfall, not to mention her demise, at the hands of the Core Four of Game Central Station, assisted by four playable characters from Capcom's _Alien vs. Predator_. Of course, Wario, Arctic, and Blaze got their share of the credit too. As for Purple Basilisk, he and his warriors were busted in the underworld, put on trial and found guilty, and hauled off to the Grim Reaper Penitentiary in the underworld.

Four days have passed since then, with word about the five Mushroom Stones being spread around the world containing the "secret to ultimate power" as said by a mysterious elder named Misu. Arctic Bomber was among the first to hear about it, as well as her rival King Billy Bling of the Money Dynasty, and a few others she may or may not remember from long ago. Yuffie, on the other hand, saw it as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to restore her former hometown, Wutai, which had been destroyed five and a half years ago during the Alien Wars, but she allowed Blaze Bomber to accompany her on the mission. It wasn't until sometime later that we heard Purple Basilisk was still in business, having broken out of prison thanks to Warlock's contribution in brainwashing the guards into letting the Basilisk Dynasty escape unnoticed - if not unpunished - with his Black Magic, prior to reviving Siren Bomber with a one-time warning that she was to never again mutiny on Purple Basilisk. Thus the hunt for the five Mushroom Stones began, though none had ever guessed that Misu intended for the secret, said to be housed at the Forbidden Pyramid somewhere in the distant Sarasaland, to restore her power. Arctic found out in the end Misu was actually Terrormisu, the humanoid she-demon, in disguise.

To add insult to injury, Terrormisu brainwashed King Billy's three loyal servants, the Rich Bombers, into destroying Arctic's group with no remorse, all the while causing Billy Bling to grovel in fear that he'd be forced to kill his own subjects. Fortunately, Arctic and Blaze were able to get around Terrormisu's evil magic and took her out in their effort to save the world from the Forbidden Pyramid's terrible secret to ultimate power. Back in Diamond City, the four of us heroic Contras kept Purple Basilisk and his Chaotic Bombers busy so they wouldn't pursue Arctic and Blaze, whilst assisted by Yuffie, White, Pink, and even the esteemed members of WarioWare Inc. (not to mention 9-Volt and Phoebe, in addition to his mother 5-Volt). However, Purple Basilisk had hired some of Dracula's surviving henchmen as additional reinforcements, even though he had to pay them five million Diamond Crystals in advance. The battle was tougher due to the Lesser Demon's three loyal henchmen, but we were lucky to have pulled through before we'd be dead on the ground.

When the battle concluded, the bad guys were forced to retreat to the underworld again, because from what we overheard, word on the street is that the Lesser Demon is one of the top contenders in the Underworld Boxing Association, and Purple Basilisk stupidly let slip the fact that he himself had been pulling strings whenever Boxer Bomber was on the verge of defeat, claiming it's so difficult for him to fund his empire without getting busted by the promoters. With the truth leaked to the Lesser Demon's mercenary group, he now "employed" the Basilisk Dynasty into doing everything he said, lest he tell the UBA all about Purple Basilisk's publicity stunt to save Boxer's reputation as the king of the boxing ring. Instead, we chose not to think too much about it and just be glad we won the battle by a close shave...

[End BGM]

* * *

APRIL 12, 20XX...

It was now time for the court session. The staff members of WarioWare Inc., along with Puffy AmiYumi and their close friends, including the Contras (Arctic, Blaze, Bill, Lance, Ami, and me) were expected to make an appearance at the Supreme Court of the United States. The same went for Privates Jimbo and Sully, who were each promoted to Corporal for assisting Bill, Lance, and the Diamond Police in redirecting innocent civilians to safety. Due to Shepherd's betrayal, they were legally transferred over to the US Colonial Marines, the official successor of the US Marine Corps. As for the court session at hand, we were all required to dress formally, which we did.

"I never thought we'd see you guys again after all this time," said Jimbo with his Southern accent.

Sully spoke with that accent too. "Same here. We're with the Colonial Marines now, but it'll be an honor helping you in any way we can."

Blaze Bomber nodded in agreement, shaking hands with the two soldiers. "We appreciate it. Word on the street is Weyland-Yutani's been pulling the strings all along, even going so far as to claim the Bacterion warships and even the cloned Xenomorphs as the finest in American history."

"Yeah," Bill piped up. "Apparently, when they found out about our deeds, they got pissed and decided to sue us for 'destroying government property'."

Lance scoffed. "Government property my ass..."

As we got ourselves seated as assigned, a bailiff appeared before the audience and the jury to announce the chief judge of the Supreme Court, thus prompting everyone to stand before him as told, "Ladies and gentlemen, the court session will now come to order: the Weyland-Yutani Corporation vs. the Contras." Jimbo, Sully, Arctic Bomber, Blaze Bomber, Bill, Lance, Ami, and I were seated on the right table representing our namesake group dedicated to fighting crime and dark forces alike, whereas six representatives of Weyland-Yutani were seated on the left table. It was obvious to Arctic that we're the defendants in the court of law, with the Company men as the plaintiffs. The chief judge, a healthy-looking male in his 50s, prompted the audience to pay close attention by banging his gavel twice.

"Plaintiffs of Weyland-Yutani, state your case."

The leading member of the group, a corporate executive in a business suit, stepped forth. "First off, I am Carter J. Burke, a respected junior executive of the company. Now, as you are no doubt aware, these eight war criminals at this table have been senselessly desecrating our good name by destroying government property, notably Area 51, if you will."

Arctic Bomber sighed in response. "Yeah yeah, we did destroy that base. We'd be lying if any of us claimed otherwise..."

The judge banged his gavel three times to grab her attention. "Order in the court! Burke, if you may continue?"

The junior executive continued, "We at Weyland-Yutani have been focusing deeply on building better worlds for years ever since the Alien Wars, because that is what we do as a multi-million dollar corporation. What I mean is there have been discoveries of other planets said to have been uninhabitable for centuries, giving us the opportunity to build colonies there to support human life. Charles Bishop Weyland was one of its co-founders, along with Lieutenant General Shepherd and a couple other key members. And before I forget, the story about us kidnapping a bunch of people from all over the world for Project: ACT ZERO was nothing but a blatant lie, spewed out by these criminals. We are in no way affiliated with this project or whatever they call it."

During Burke's side of the story, Jimbo whispered quietly, "Now _that_ remark is a dadburn lie."

"They've given us so much trouble, thus forcing us to take extreme measures to put them away. Never in my life have I ever imagined they'd go this far by blowing up Area 51 just because they're against our plans for building better worlds...I mean, think about it. Multi-million dollar bases, all blown out of existence because of a small group of angry rebels whose morals and values are poisonous to our well-being, not to mention filled to the brim with arrogance and paranoia. I rest my case."

Arctic muttered, "Poisonous my ass."

"Your Honor, if I may object..."

But before Bill could make his statement, Burke got off the table and pointed his finger accusingly at him. "No! This vile criminal can't object! I say we find him and all his followers guilty! That does double for these people from Diamond City, who much like Jimbo and Sully are their accomplices in crime!" He didn't even stop to take notice that the "accomplices" present included 9-Volt, Phoebe, Kat, Ana, White, Pink, Yuffie, and even 9-Volt's mom. But, the executive was quickly interrupted by the chief judge, who declared his statement overruled and allowed Bill to state his case.

"Thank you, Your Honor. Despite what was said on Weyland-Yutani's side of the story, our side speaks the truth, and I intend to do so. According to what we've personally witnessed aboard the W.R.S., short for Weapons Research Station, General Shepherd had been secretly completing Project: ACT ZERO by kidnapping plenty of innocent victims from around the world, whilst creating the illusion that space aliens were doing it with the aid of his holographic belts. He intended to turn the victims into mindless zombies so he could test the battle suits' capabilities before distributing them to his own soldiers, whom he dubbed the 'Super Bombermen' or as we would call them nowadays, the Zero Men. When we exposed his plans, he deliberately set the W.R.S. to self-destruct as a last-ditch effort to kill us, but we escaped with our lives."

Blaze Bomber added, "Aaron, Ami, and I did our share of the investigation on Galuga Island to expose Shepherd's real intentions, but his loyal follower, Colonel Bassad, insisted that we die by his hands. We fought back and destroyed him as a defensive act."

The chief judge nodded in response. "I see. And if I recall, your party was responsible for redirecting innocent lives to safety during the attack in Diamond City, am I correct?"

"Yeah," answered Lance. "Once we made our escape, we reunited with our fellow Contras and took out the Bacterion warships that were dead set on destroying the entire city at Shepherd's discretion."

Burke scoffed in denial and stood up against orders. "Oh, that's preposterous! They went too far, leaving us no choice but to retaliate in spades!"

The chief judge banged his gavel once more, prompting Burke to sit back down. "Order in the court! Contras, you may continue."

"Thanks, Your Honor," said Lance. "Shepherd's reason for wanting to blow up Diamond City was just so nobody would ever live to know what they heard from us about his real intentions. And if I recall, he even sent in a group of _convicted felons_ to waste us, all the while bribing them with a $1 billion bounty on our heads. Bill and I know them as the Killer Mohawks, because we've dealt with them before. We were both fortunate at that time to have stopped them with no civilian casualties on our part, but nowadays...well, you get the picture."

Arctic stated her part of our story as well. "And finally, I went with Aaron, Ami, and Blaze Bomber to Area 51 to take out the rest of the stolen Bacterion warships at its source. It became obvious Shepherd was using the base as his personal hangar for all those ships he'd been stockpiling over time. We had to destroy it by setting them all to self-destruct simultaneously, and like I said, we'd be lying if we claimed otherwise."

Blaze added his own words once more, "We only did it because if the ships were left alone, they would self-activate and threaten the planet in time for their one and true master to make his appearance. As a historical fact, he is known as Bacterian, the space god of destruction. We rest our case."

Burke had again taken our case as a tangled web of lies, even though anyone who had seen _Aliens_ could tell he was doing everything in his power to weasel his way out of being declared guilty as charged. "That is ridiculous! Your Honor, these people speak nothing but such heresy."

"Overruled!" interrupted the chief judge. "Has the jury reached a verdict?"

Based on the paperwork given out to the judge and jury about the case, especially our side of the story, they took a moment to make their final statement. The jury members then stood up, with one of them finding us _not guilty_, and free of all charges that Burke filed against us. It didn't take much for the chief judge to realize that we had been doing what's right for the sake of not just the United States, but the whole world as well. By exposing the traitorous General Shepherd's real plans, we prevented total destruction...though it was not to be the last since it's only a matter of months before the Bacterion Empire finally makes an appearance above orbit.

As for the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, they were fined $1 billion for their illegal acts, including but not limited to: stockpiling alien Xenomorphs and stolen technology alike for their bio-weapons division, blatant disregard for the lives of any people involved in said attempts, and even using a restricted area as a personal hangar for the Bacterion warships. Thus, the chief judge declared that the megacorporation cease and desist all projects in relation to bio-weaponry, and to disband immediately. With one last bang from the gavel, the judge dismissed the case, but Burke had one last thing to tell us before he left with his followers.

"One day, you'll realize what a big mistake you've made. You don't understand the true potential of Bacterion technology..."

"We understand just that, alright," said Sully, "the potential threat it possesses."

"Still uttering the same nonsense. The world doesn't stand a chance without it, and you know it. I hope you're all proud of yourselves. You wanted a safer world too, but the fact that the six Contras opposed us and our brilliant experiments makes your idea seem hypocritical in contrast to our own."

5-Volt stepped in. "But that doesn't make it anymore excusable, because your company's personal army of corrupt soldiers and convicted felons endangered my only child and his friends during the attack on our hometown. Now as far as I'm concerned, carpet-bombing a populated area in its entirety just to get rid of a few bad apples won't make you any better than the Red Falcon Empire."

"You of all people should know our home country's halfway down the toilet because your so-called heroes have grown too powerful by destroying our government property. The Zero Men of Project: ACT ZERO, the cloned Xenomorphs, and the Bacterion warships, the latter two of which are magnificent species. Imagine what good they'll do by stopping all pointless conflicts and terrorist threats on this planet, and set us up for life in the end. But thanks to your arrogance and paranoia, our research is finished and Weyland-Yutani's reputation tarnished. Bottom line, I sense you've never heard of acceptable losses nor the old saying: you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Even you and your child must realize the world has been overpopulated with terrorism over the years, even today, and we must take extreme measures to counter them all. If it means nuking an entire populated area with one blow to cleanse all sinners with the Bacterions, so much the better. And like I said before, the plans to fulfill our ultimate dream are now diminished forevermore."

"The Xenomorphs and Bacterions are weaponized, soulless abominations whose main purpose is to kill people and expand their personal hive! And you leave 9-Volt out of this because he and Phoebe never did anything to you guys in the first place; that goes double for myself and my then-alive husband, and Phoebe's dad as well!"

"Okay, now you are being hysteric-"

"End of discussion," interrupted 5-Volt, prior to walking out with our friends and her son 9-Volt, thus leaving the Bacterion-obsessed extremist at a loss for words.

With the case resolved, we were free to return to Diamond City, and thus continued to fund the restoration of Area 51 in anticipation of the oncoming invasion by the Bacterion Empire. With the people of planet Bomber co-existing on Earth, we slowly but surely made the effort to ensure our planet would be ready - only without the stolen technology from space.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

The Bacterion invasion may be imminent months from now, though it does not mean the people of Earth shouldn't prepare themselves.


	3. First battle above orbit

As the title of this chapter points out, our heroes are in for their first battle above orbit.

**DISCLAIMER: WarioWare is a property of Nintendo; Contra and Gradius belong to Konami; Bomberman is owned by Hudson Soft despite the company being absorbed unto Konami as of March 2012. Everything else not mentioned here, let alone Final Fantasy, are properties of their respective owners, save for my Bomberman OCs/fan characters.**

* * *

Chapter 2: First battle above orbit

[Opening BGM: Prologue - The Sun, the Moon, and Nova (Kirby Super Star)]

Approximately 7 months since the court case, came November 9. Humans and Bombermen co-worked to boost Earth's defenses, starting with the construction of a few space colonies. In the event that the citizens of Diamond City would go with us into outer space to assess the situation, we unofficially dubbed one of said colonies "Interstellar Diamond." As a matter of fact, half the city's population openly admitted they couldn't just sit around and do nothing while we're risking our lives out there, meaning they wanted to aid us in any way possible just as we aided them time and again. Even Diamond City's top scientists agreed that Project: ACT ZERO was nothing but trouble, despite Weyland-Yutani's claims about how it would "change the world of today." Henceforth, the scientists swore to assist Dr. Crygor in our campaign to defeat the Bacterion Empire, as well as give Penny the finer points of being a great scientist just like her grandfather.

Throughout the months, the scientists cooperated with Professor Ein, Cheerful White's old mentor, and his colleagues as they began the development process of the space fighters for planets Earth and Bomber's military forces to use, in addition to constructing two experimental vehicles, each resembling a sports car, with the technology based on both the CrygorCopter and the souped-up taxi cab that Dribble and Spitz normally use. Some scientists suggested naming them after the famed Vic Viper and Lord British starfighters from the _Gradius_ series, but we recommended against it since they're likely taken by the people of planet Gradius. In conclusion, we decided to call them the Contra Cruisers. Upon painting the first one blue, and the other red, we assigned each vehicle an obvious callsign.

"CC-Blue and CC-Red?" asked Arctic Bomber. "Isn't that a little cliché, not to mention generic?"

Ami replied, "I know it sounds that way, but we didn't want to get a little too complex on nicknaming our Contra Cruisers."

I piped up, "I think I have a better idea. How about...let's see...CC-Aqua, and CC-Flame?"

"Sounds good to me," said Blaze Bomber. "All in favor of these two better callsigns, say aye."

Bill nodded. "Aye."

Lance added, "Same here."

"Not bad at all, Aaron," stated Ami.

Arctic Bomber shrugged it off and said, "As long as these codenames stand out, I'm okay with it."

[End BGM]

Just then, a blaring klaxon went off with a male announcer giving a mandatory warning through loudspeakers: **Emergency! Emergency! Interstellar Diamond and all other space colonies are under attack by the Bacterions! All non-military personnel and civilians are to evacuate immediately! All armed forces to their battle stations and commence extermination!** We knew it was coming someday, even throughout the past 7 months. And now, the Bacterion forces have prepared an invasion on planet Earth by sending in its armada of BigCore MK-I warships, flanked by numerous clones of Zelos Force (the big red spherical creature).

"Looks like we'll be giving our Contra Cruisers a real test run after all," I commented.

"At this rate, it's not much of a surprise," acknowledged Ami. "Let's make our family and friends proud."

* * *

[Stage BGM: Universe (Gradius V)]

_Mission 1: Space colony defense  
Unsurprisingly, the Bacterions have made their appearance above Earth's orbit, ready to take out the three space colonies in their way. The Contras, now aboard their namesake space fighters, are ordered to defend against the onslaught, and destroy the enemy leader in charge of the invasion.  
November 9, 20XX  
6:30 PM_

Blaze Bomber, Ami, and I got inside the blue Contra Cruiser, while Arctic Bomber boarded the red one alongside Bill and Lance. Starting our engines, we flew off to battle within Interstellar Diamond to chase off the Bacterions. We shot down small groups of enemy ships, causing them to cough up some spherical power-up icons for us to acquire. Thinking back to _Gradius_, we collected the icons until the power meter on both our space cars highlighted "Multiple." With proper management, we generated two orange, oval-shaped pods for each Contra Cruiser to give additional firepower, whilst keeping our regular laser shots. By the time we encountered a BigCore MK-I, we each generated a force field around our cruisers for protection.

"We know what needs to be done, fellas," called Bill.

"In other words: shoot the core!" Lance instructed.

The BigCore MK-I attacked in its basic manner: four blue lasers, while swerving up and down. Of course, anybody who's ever played _Gradius_ would simply position the Vic Viper in-between the laser shots or avoid them altogether, and fire at the weak spot repeatedly. But as we expected, each barrier panel destroyed coughed up a spread of diamond-shaped "suicide bullets", which we avoided easily. When the warship's blue core was exposed, we fired away until it turned red and exploded, destroying the BigCore MK-I instantly. A fleet of large crafts followed behind its destruction, shot some plasma bullets but couldn't angle them very well, giving us plenty of room to destroy them. Finally, the allied forces showed up to assist us in driving out the invaders.

"Thanks, fellas!" Arctic commented gratefully. "We're clear to head out and blow these bastards to hell!"

Upon flying out of our space colony, we found out not a moment too soon that what we destroyed was only the first wave. The second one mainly consisted of numerous Zelos Force clones, each with the ability to expand in size as a means of crushing small ships in-between themselves. Before we engaged them, we announced our current situation.

"This is Contra Cruisers Aqua and Flame," called Blaze, "commencing attack on the enemy!"

Thanks to the Multiples we still had, we didn't have too much trouble blasting the Zelos Force clones, shrinking them in size until they went "BWAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and exploded. The Bacterion forces, furious at our success, ordered the spherical creatures to crush only our Contra Cruisers at once, or surround us so we can't get out. Their tactics proved to be a fluke as we blew them away, eventually persuading them that they had no other choice but to flee now, or get their comeuppance for attempting to kill people.

"They've gotten our message," I stated.

"We're winning!" cheered Ami.

Bill had doubts about the situation. "So it would seem. There's a portal right in front of us!"

"I see something coming out," warned Lance. "Get back!"

[End BGM]  
[Boss BGM: Stage Boss (Gradius V)]

A giant warship came out of the portal, revealing itself as a BigCore. We instantly recognized it as the BigCore Rev. 1.2 (a modification of the BigCore MK-I) from _Gradius V_ as the first boss. It was embedded with an arm ring on each side, forming the shape of a giant circle. On each arm ring, it had three cannons that shot blue ion rings.

"As soon as its core opens up, don't hold back," instructed Blaze Bomber.

"Wasn't intending to," acknowledged Arctic Bomber.

The BigCore warship commenced its attack sequence by shooting two long lasers from its main body, whilst spinning around and firing the ion rings from its circular arms. Only with our excellent piloting skills did we manage to avoid the enemy shots unscathed. Afterwards, the core itself opened up, giving us the opportunity to fire away.

Arctic stated, "Bill, Lance, and I are gonna wreck the ion ring launchers on the bottom, while you three take out the upper ones!"

Blaze nodded in agreement. "Copy that, Arctic. Aaron and Ami, let's make it count because there aren't any extra lives!"

"Everybody knows that," Ami said flatly.

"Say no more," I added.

Having assigned ourselves two different tasks, we opened fire on the ion ring cannons in addition to keeping an eye out for the BigCore Rev. 1.2's frontal laser attack. In less than a minute, we destroyed all six of the cannons, forcing the enemy warship to divert all energy to its main guns. Now we had plasma spread shots to avoid, but our bravery and skills enabled us to inch our way out of death's door. With careful timing, we blew open all the barrier panels, and attacked the core itself. Fortunately, no suicide bullets ever came out of the panels we destroyed, simply because we already had the plasma balls to dodge. Then the BigCore warship charged up for its two long lasers again and fired away, but it only spun around 180 degrees before we finally took out the core. With no energy left, the BigCore Rev. 1.2 went off in chain of small explosions, prompting us to break away just seconds before it detonated in the ensuing, massive explosion.

[End BGM]

Bill called to the defending squad of the Interstellar Diamond, "This is Contra Cruisers Flame and Aqua. The mission was successful!"

Lance joined in, "We're all accounted for, and the invading Bacterions expunged."

* * *

Having said that, we flew back to Interstellar Diamond even though we didn't suffer any damages during the battle. Thank goodness for the barrier on each of our Contra Cruisers! With the space colonies safe from the Bacterion invasion, we checked in with Dr. Crygor, Professor Ein, and the fellow scientists to survey the damage. Thankfully, it wasn't too severe, though our alliance did suffer some casualties on our part.

"Well, at least our Contra Cruisers performed well," said Blaze.

Ami smiled. "We were lucky to have activated the energy shields, otherwise we might not have survived."

I added my two cents, "Yeah, but don't forget: like with the _Gradius_ series, the force field isn't as durable as the frontal, gear-shaped shield. It can only protect the ship for about 3 hits before disappearing."

"To top it all, thank goodness for our spaceship training," summarized Bill.

"I second that." Then Arctic had something else in mind. "But why did the Bacterions target our space colonies instead of Earth?"

"To get the outer defenses out of the way," theorized Lance. "Then again, there had to be a reason..."

Penny called us in, "I've just figured it out. They intended for all of us to come out and fight back, that way the colonies, let alone Interstellar Diamond, would be vulnerable inside...and eventually Earth."

Arctic Bomber felt confused for a moment. "Wait a minute, they're not bent on resurrecting Red Falcon and his dead lackeys back to life, are they?"

"No, not at all," said Dr. Crygor. "Their main reason for world dominion is simply to expand their empire, like a hive mind. Apparently, it's different from the Red Falcon Empire's motives. While Red Falcon, Sniper Bomber, and Axe Bomber lead an army of intergalactic cutthroats and killing machines alike, let alone the Five Dastardly Bombers, the Bacterion Empire behaves quite the same except for certain key differences: for one, they act as a hive mind, usually run by an organic leader from the comforts of its personal base."

Professor Ein, the white-haired man we all knew well as Cheerful White's instructor on some of his missions, brought up some information about the Bacterions onscreen. "Here's what we've looked up so far on Gradian history..."

(FLASHBACK - PROFESSOR EIN'S DIALOGUE)  
**"In the infinitely-expanding universe, lies a blue planet similar to our own, and your planet Earth. Gradius, as it was called, was home to a human race whose technology is quite advanced beyond that of Earth's. Of course, it was one of the main targets of the Bacterions, but the Vic Viper - first piloted by Special Colonel James Burton - defeated them time and again. Occasionally, there would be a different leader in charge of the Bacterion hive mind, but most of the time, it's Bacterian. You know, that space god of destruction?**

"Ahem...anyway, like Dr. Crygor said, the Bacterions have an entirely different reason for conquering planets. But rather than just occupy one with a huge army like Red Falcon usually does with his, the Bacterions literally infect it on the inside. In due time, that planet would be converted into their personal 'Organic Fortress', as the Gradians noted. The Bacterion Empire requires this tactic so they can produce more of their organic kind, then expand their territory across the galaxy as we know it. You might say this is the case, which is true. But unlike Red Falcon himself, the Bacterion leader is often very weak; it desperately needs protection inside its personal fortress.

"Besides Bacterian, there were a few other notable dictators who have also been defeated at least once: Gofer, and Dr. Venom. Gofer is another freaky-looking alien head with a brain sticking out atop himself, while Dr. Venom used to be the Director General of the Space Science Agency, who originally created the Vic Viper for James Burton to use against the Bacterions...at least, long before he sold out to the bad guys. You see, Venom was born as a Wreek (aside from James), a primitive race whose extraordinary powers could be used as energy, but were unfortunately weak against radioactivity from space. An outcome of a war took its toll on most of the Wreek, leaving only a few survivors, including James and Venom.

"The Gradian government didn't do much for them, and only wanted to use their power, but otherwise avoided contact with them due to their primitive status. You've probably read up on this already, but Dr. Venom had since hated Gradius with a vengeance to the point in which he actually staged a coup d'etat with his followers. His plan was thwarted in time, and he was banished to the barren, deserted prison planet Sard. Finally...well, you get the picture: he sold out to the Bacterions, and that's how he became one of their leaders aside from Bacterian and Gofer.

"Anyway, as for the Bacterions' plot to infect other planets: yes, there are a certain few that have been assimilated before, such as Antichthon, the protectorate of the Gradian Empire. Though the planet was utterly destroyed when the Vic Viper took out its infected mother computer, there are other cases in which destroying the enemy controller would revert the mutated planet back into its former state. But either way, should the brain of the empire be destroyed, its minions would often break down into Bacterion cells and multiply to recreate their fleet of mechanical ships and organic creatures. The regeneration would take years, but the cycle inevitably continues on this day..."  
(END FLASHBACK)

"Had the Earth been infected, chances are it might get destroyed even if we manage to take out the Bacterion commander in charge. This is crucial, especially for planet Bomber."

Dr. Crygor nodded. "The seemingly-casual battle we just won was only the prelude for what's to come. We can't afford to lose both our own homeworlds nor their neighboring planets to the Bacterion assimilation."

Arctic Bomber sighed. "Looks like I'm gonna need more than just the stuff I learned from practicing up on the _Gradius_ video games Aaron and Ami had shown me..."

"We all do," stated Blaze Bomber. "It's not gonna be any easier from this point on, especially if a populated planet does get mutated into an Organic Fortress. We need to get in contact with the people of Gradius for assistance."

Just then, four familiar faces showed up. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's freakin' do it!"

Arctic Bomber gasped in surprise. "King Billy Bling! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"I know, right? The Rich Bombers and I have sworn to fight for Earth, for both our own kingdoms. There's no way we're letting those creepy-crawlies, much less the bio-mechanical Bacterions, infect the hell out of it!"

"Who are those guys, Arctic?" asked Penny.

"Long story. They used to want to be the richest on the planet...but not anymore. I'll explain on the way."

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

The first battle in space may be over, but as Dr. Crygor and Professor Ein said, there are more where the Bacterions came from.


	4. To Bomber Nebula!

Earth's orbit is free from the Bacterion threat, while witnesses fear it was all but a prelude for what's to come the following day.

**DISCLAIMER: WarioWare is a property of Nintendo; Contra and Gradius belong to Konami; Bomberman is owned by Hudson Soft despite the company being absorbed unto Konami as of March 2012. Everything else not mentioned here, let alone Final Fantasy, are properties of their respective owners, save for my Bomberman OCs/fan characters.**

* * *

Chapter 3: To Bomber Nebula!

The next morning, we were called for a priority meeting alongside the members of the US Colonial Marines, including Corporals Jimbo and Sully. Their current leader was Lieutenant Jaguar, whose appearance reminded us of Genbei "Jaguar" Yagyu - a humanoid samurai alien from the distant planet "Oh! Edo" - from _Neo Contra_. Standing beside him was the admiral of the fleet we backed up against the Zelos Force clones.

Arctic Bomber smirked. "This just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?" wondered Blaze Bomber.

"Well...uh, forget I said anything."

The dark-skinned samurai greeted the whole group, "Good morning, everyone, and thanks again for helping us drive out the savage Bacterions. However, Earth wasn't their only target of interest."

"What are you saying?" asked Jimbo.

"The commander of our next operation will fill us in the details."

"So it's the reason we're warping out to planet Gradius, right?" added Sully.

Jaguar nodded. "Well...you're half right, but unfortunately, we've just learned that the attack was none other than a smokescreen to get all of us to come out fighting. Admiral, if you may?" He stepped aside for the commander to begin his speech.

"Thank you, lieutenant." The admiral, a tall Caucasian in a military uniform bearing four stars on his shoulder boards and sleeve stripes, turned his attention toward us. "Hello again, everyone. I'm Admiral Ares Pierce, though you might assume I am related to the famed God of War. I know Greek mythology myself, but I'm the other Ares."

"Corny," Arctic whispered quietly.

"Arctic, be quiet," I hushed.

"Now as you are no doubt aware," Ares began, "like Lieutenant Jaguar said, the invasion we just repelled the other day was a smokescreen. The Bacterions wanted all of us to fight back, and every non-military personnel to evacuate immediately. As it turned out, their small fleet of scout fighters breached our space colonies' security and got ahold of the data concerning Bomber Nebula's existence. In other words, planet Bomber and its neighboring worlds: Primus, Kanatia, and Mazone, are at risk from an oncoming invasion. Garaden Star, however, was destroyed long ago thanks to the heroic efforts of...Shirobon, is it?"

"Yeah, but my friends call me Cheerful White."

Admiral Ares didn't care which name White preferred to be called, for he remained concerned about how the infection of Bomber, Primus, Kanatia, and Mazone would lead to another attempt at turning Earth into yet another Organic Fortress. He didn't say anything else afterwards, and instead set course for Bomber Nebula at Professor Ein's discretion. As soon as the three space colonies arrived, we were ready to take off in our Contra Cruisers. Just then, the admiral received a message on a secure line.

_Do they suspect anything?_

"No, I don't think so."

_Good. Monitor them closely._

* * *

[Stage BGM: Battleship (Gradius V)]

Elsewhere outside Interstellar Diamond, we flew above planet Bomber alongside Lieutenant Jaguar's crew. As expected, the Bacterions had already shown up before us, though we made the effort to take them out. Suddenly, a portal appeared out of nowhere with a giant flagship coming through. **WARNING: There is a space-time anomaly forming,**said the CC-Aqua and CC-Flame's computers in unison. **Three objects have emerged. Ship identification code cannot be processed for the large craft. The others are Contra Cruisers Aqua and Flame.**

"But that's impossible!" shouted Blaze Bomber.

A radio transmission came up, but the face was obscured for some reason. _Can you read us? This is Contra Cruisers Aqua and Flame. We don't have much time, so listen closely. In order to defeat them, we need your help. We have to get inside the flagship through two different rear hatches and destroy the core at each end. Both must be taken out, or there's no future for either of us._

Blaze thought about what we had just witnessed. _That voice sounds familiar, although...well, guess we haven't got a choice._

_Mission 2: Joint operation  
Temporarily assisted by the CC-Aqua and CC-Flame's counterparts, the Contras have no alternative but to put their mission on hold and destroy the enemy flagship from the inside instead.  
November 10, 20XX  
8:25 AM_

As much as we wanted to recall from _Gradius V_, we put aside our thoughts and went along with the plan. We ordered the fleet to take out the enemy stragglers, while we'd deal with the Bacterion flagship inside. From there, we blew open the hatch on the right, and headed on in to take out the sentry guns and fighters alike. We expected some damage from their defenses, though we came out okay despite getting shot at least once or twice. As we made it halfway through the interior of the flagship, we were blocked by a group of large, one-eyed circular monsters moving across the ceiling with their tentacles. They opened up their eyes and shot out a spread of green energy bursts. We couldn't afford another damage, but since we haven't been picking up enough power-up icons to get the force field, we decided to stick with one Multiple on each of our car-shaped fighters. Holding onto the air brakes for as long as we could, we barely squeezed in-between the energy bursts whilst returning fire, until the creatures burst into green guts. Finally, we came to the rendezvous point just before the hatches closed up. Our Contra Cruisers, along with the two counterparts, confronted a large alien brain, flanked by two eye-shaped cores. Neither one offered any resistance, leaving us to obliterate the core on our end and take leave.

"The core on our end is history," informed Bill.

_Okay, you go on ahead._

"Roger that," acknowledged Lance. "We're outta here now, so good luck!"

_You too!_

After the rather odd moment with our ships' counterparts, we blew open the frontal hatch and got out of the Bacterion flagship. The two counterparts followed behind just before the flagship detonated in a massive explosion, and mysteriously disappeared to whence they came. We thought it all to be pure coincidence at first, since we had no clue on whether our Contra Cruisers were capable of time travel or not. Maybe it might have been an alien artifact installed on our counterparts at some point.

[End BGM]  
[Fight BGM: Poison of Snake (Gradius V)]

Meanwhile, a swarm of small, circular ships warped in to launch themselves toward us. Dubbed as the "Zub Rush", the enemies flew in with reckless abandon. We got plenty of shots in with relative ease, even though a few Zubs got lucky enough to spawn right on top of us for a fender bender. Fortunately, the damage was nothing serious. We did, however, get a little too distracted by destroying so many Zubs to even bother keeping an eye on our Contra Cruisers' power meters. Because of that, all we could activate were the laser beams.

When the Zub Rush was over, a Bacterion warship flew in to commence battle with us. Known by the Gradians as Death (at least its MK-III variation), it was more of a pseudo-Core than a BigCore variant. Its frontal door remained closed, preventing any damage on its blue core, which was also closed. To compensate, it launched waves of indestructible missiles in our direction. We merely veered out of the way and returned fire on its frontal door, repeating the pattern (despite getting shot once) until it was blown apart, exposing Death MK-III's weak spot. The core opened, but the warship continued firing its missiles, followed by charging up a huge laser beam of its own. Its attack power was intense, but luckily it missed us by a few inches. Afterwards, we unloaded on the exposed core while the warship wasn't firing its big laser. By then, the core exploded, destroying Death MK-III instantly.

Following behind was Tetran, one of the Core-style warships we fought before. Not much had changed in its attack pattern, though it remained as deadly as it could ever be. It opened up its four tentacle-like arms to swing away, and fire bullets from its arm tips. Recalling from our last encounter, we flew around the arms to avoid its gunfire, and blasted the barrier panels protecting the core within. As expected, each barrier panel that's destroyed split into a spread of suicide bullets, all flying in our direction. We barely avoided getting hit, while Tetran changed its attack pattern to spin its arms around with blazing speed. It rapidly fired its laser shots like crazy, and we still couldn't get the hang of its quick movement. We managed to catch on a little, and destroyed all of Tetran's barrier panels before taking out the core as soon as it stopped firing rapidly.

[End BGM]  
[Boss BGM: BigCore MK-II (Gradius V)]

Immediately after Tetran detonated in a big explosion, the BigCore MK-II followed behind. Just like our previous encoutner on Earth, it was larger than the MK-I variation, bearing red streaks instead of yellow, and possessed two cores instead of one. It started its attack pattern by opening up to reveal two cores, and shot out a total of ten blue lasers up front instead of the usual four. Only with our skillful flying were we able to maneuver around the laser shots to avoid getting vaporized since we never had the gall to activate the force field on our Contra Cruisers. Then the warship thrust forth like a battering ram and zipped by, just barely missing us.

Afterwards, the BigCore MK-II returned to its original position to spin rapidly and fire its lasers randomly. Thinking back to our last encounter, we watched the laser beams' pattern carefully and dodged in order to get a clear shot at the barrier panels protecting the cores. The BigCore MK-II closed its sides again, and tilted a bit to face us before opening up for the third time. Since we're flying two space cars instead of one souped-up helicopter, we each took out one of the two cores. That way, by destroying them simultaneously, we wouldn't have to worry about the BigCore MK-II having a bigger ramming space for a counterattack. We succeeded, but the BigCore MK-II had one last trick: it used its non-functioning sides to ram itself toward us with no room to dodge this time. Flinging its arms about, it slammed into our Contra Cruisers so hard, we were sent careening towards Primus Star just as the warship detonated in a large explosion.

[End BGM]

"Aw, man!" whined Arctic Bomber. "Not this again!"

Blaze Bomber grunted, "Brace yourselves! We're going down!"

Our damaged cruisers fell through the atmosphere, just lucky enough to survive reentry without burning up. Finally, we crash-landed into a lush jungle, whilst redirecting the impact so it wouldn't eventually cause our Contra Cruisers to explode. Unfortunately, the impact damaged our radio communicators, severing all attempts to get in touch with Lt. Jaguar's crew.

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

Crash-landings can be scary, but only until the heroes make it out alive in some cases like this.


	5. Stranded on Primus Star

After surviving a crash-landing and out of contact from the Interstellar Diamond, the Contras now have to find help on their own. Speaking of which, I'm sorry for being late. I got a little carried away with not just my DeviantART activity (in which I'm almost done with my script-like version of "The Interdimensional War"), but my part-time night job at a store as well. Other than that, I'll do what I can to make up for lost time as always.

**DISCLAIMER: WarioWare is a property of Nintendo; Contra and Gradius belong to Konami; Bomberman is owned by Hudson Soft despite the company being absorbed unto Konami as of March 2012. Everything else not mentioned here, let alone Final Fantasy, are properties of their respective owners, save for my Bomberman OCs/fan characters.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Stranded on Primus Star

[Overworld BGM: Jade Moon Reprise (Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader)]

Roughly 30 minutes had passed since the crash-landing on Primus Star. It wasn't uncommon that bad guys everywhere would sometimes pull one last trick upon defeat, simply to make sure we'd lose too. And one of the Bacterion warships succeeded, though it detonated after its two cores were destroyed. Thankfully, our Contra Cruisers didn't explode upon impact, but we were knocked out cold for a while. Neither of us would be surprised if the engines were damaged in addition to the communicators.

"Oooogh...my aching head..." groaned Ami.

Arctic Bomber added, "Wh-where are we now...?"

I rubbed my head to soothe the pain a bit. "Well...unless my memory is screwy from the crash, I'd say we landed somewhere in the Woods of Esuram...at least, that's what the nearby sign to our left says."

"Thank goodness for seatbelts and airbags," said Lance, "otherwise we'd be dead by now."

Bill nodded. "The bad news is, we can't contact our friends unless we fix our Contra Cruisers first. It'll be a while longer before we ever reach planet Gradius on time."

We stepped out of our damaged vehicles with Ami wondering, "Maybe Princess Millian and her royal subjects, including Pibot, can help us."

"Actually, she's a queen now, if I'm not mistaken," stated Blaze Bomber. "It's likely been three, maybe four years since Cheerful White saved Bomber Nebula from Bagular's Garaden Empire."

"Good point," said Arctic. "So, where _exactly_ in the woods are we?"

I gathered our bearings toward a nearby sign. "The sign also says we're at Groog Hills. Wait, hold on a sec. _CAUTION: Avoid eye contact with the two-horned Groogs if you can, as pictured below. They will chase you around unless you get as far away from them as possible._"

"Kinda like Primeapes, only they're miniature bulls at about our size," Ami commented.

_Mission 3: The Woods of Esuram_  
_With no way to contact the US Colonial Marines and the people aboard Interstellar Diamond, the Contras are on their own. They must find a way to Primus Castle in order to get help...at least before this planet becomes completely infected by the Bacterions._  
_November 10, 20XX_  
_9:40 AM_

Recalling from _Bomberman Hero_, there appeared to be a shortcut we could take at the end of Groog Hills, but it involved going through an underground tunnel called the Bubble Hole, followed by swimming our way through Erars Lake. Given Blaze Bomber's weakness to deep water, known to prevent him from using his flame powers, and the fact that we don't have any scuba gear, we prayed there might be a conveniently-placed submarine or motorboat around the lake. Speaking of scuba gear, there actually existed one but only as part of a series of vehicular gears which only official members of Bomber Base, such as Cheerful White, were licensed to use on occasions. Four different gears, each assigned by a special device known as the Bomber Pitch, were designed and programmed at Bomber Base for certain areas, such as the air, sea, and even a snow hill.

The first Power Gear in line was known as the Bomber Marine, resembling a miniature turbine which could be attached to its user's feet, in addition to giving him or her the ability to breathe underwater without drowning. Next was the Bomber Jet, a dual-engine jetpack attached to its user's body through its metallic strap. Though it could only go forward, the user could slow it down a bit in order to get a clear shot at the enemies. Another aerial equipment in line, attached to the top of its user's head, resembled a pair of helicopter blades simply known as the Bomber Copter. Suitable for aerial missions which involve moving around rather than just go forward (unlike the Bomber Jet), it would allow the user to hover and coast wherever and whenever.

All three of these vehicular gears have bombs as their main arsenal, only with different functionality depending on whichever gear was used - though they retain the spherical appearance rather than resemble man-made explosives from Earth. However, only one vehicular gear did not possess said arsenal: the Bomber Slider. Resembling an everyday snowboard, its propeller allowed the user to accelerate forward downhill, and even perform a spin attack to knock over the enemies. Unfortunately, it was the most difficult to use out of all the four vehicular gears provided by the Bomber Pitch, due to its poor traction. Despite its obvious flaw, the people of Bomber Base have considered manufacturing the Bomber Slider for use in snowboarding events at the Winter Olympic Games, ever since Cheerful White showed great skills during his quest to overthrow the Garaden Empire.

Because we were not licensed to use any of the four gadgets, commandeering a conveniently-abandoned submarine or a motorboat was our only option of crossing Erars Lake safely. We snuck our way past the patrolling Groogs, until we came across the entrance to the Bubble Hole. On top of that, since we didn't plan on bringing our holy-powered gadgets for the battle against the Bacterion warships in space, we could only rely on Arctic Bomber and Blaze Bomber's powers to bail ourselves out of trouble.

Arctic piped up, "Guys, I don't mean to sound paranoid, but won't the others think we died in the crash?"

"No, I don't think so," declined Bill. "They'll probably search around Primus Star, assuming they spot our damaged Contra Cruisers on the surface."

Lance added, "In other words, we'll be temporarily classified as MIA until we contact Queen Millian and Pibot for help on fixing our ride."

"_If_ we get to them alive, you mean," interrupted Arctic, having spotted some big, slimy bubbles coming out of holes up ahead, along with a group of patrolling Bacterion walkers.

"We've got company!" Blaze warned. "Evasive maneuvers!"

[End BGM]

* * *

[Stage BGM: Cell (Bomberman Hero)]

The enemy walkers that attacked us were known as the Duckers. Though they pose little threat to space fighters on their own, they would get hectic when grouped with the other enemy shooters in a "bullet hell" kind of situation. For ground combat, however, they proved to be a legitimate threat to those on foot by firing at us. Arctic Bomber and Blaze Bomber distracted them by combining their ice and flame powers for their tag-team Particle Bomb attack, destroying hordes of Duckers instantly. Then we rushed our way past the stationary Bacterion cannons that fired acidic bubbles, whilst jumping over the pits and climbing our way to the end of the Bubble Hole.

We came across a docking bay, which housed small reconnaissance submarines intended for underwater travel across Erars Lake. But before we could board any of them, we were attacked by a large, hostile submarine that came out of the water. Though it was more of a Core-style warship than an illegally-modified submarine, it bore the resemblance of a large octopus. Never seen before in any of the _Gradius_ games to date, we simply called it the Octo Core. It fired a barrage of torpedoes and missiles from its tentacles, destroying most of the recon subs in an effort to kill us. Then it rammed itself against the wall, causing some big rocks to fall over for it to grab and throw at us for more damage. We wound up injured, but were able to get back up.

"How are we gonna destroy this thing?" asked Ami.

"I see a core on its mouth," I answered, "but getting past its tentacles just to blow open the barrier panels guarding the core is a different story."

Arctic shrugged. "So what's the rest of the story?"

"Maybe we can use its own torpedoes and missiles against it," suggested Blaze.

The Octo Core immediately grabbed all of us with its tentacles, but Arctic and Blaze were able to break free themselves. Knowing it would attempt to drown us humans, the two Bombers destroyed its tentacles with their Particle Bomb attack, freeing us instantly. But the Octo Core immediately regrew its tentacles for another go at drowning us to death, even shielding its own protected core to prevent us from destroying it. That's when we tried another tactic: Arctic and Blaze would keep destroying the regenerating tentacles, while the rest of us grab the missiles headed our way. With our plan in action, we were finally able to penetrate its outer defenses and break the barrier panels, leaving its core defenseless. However, it caught on to our plan and fired laser beams from its eyes, blasting us off the ground and into the water.

"We have to take out the Octo Core before it destroys all of the recon subs!" shouted Bill.

Lance gritted his teeth, but kept his cool. "Only one chance...and I think I know how we can finish it."

The Octo Core charged its eyes for a more powerful laser beam, while firing more torpedoes and missiles. We quickly got out of the water, grabbed the explosives, and threw them straight at the eyes just as the laser beam was fired. The explosives detonated on impact, destroying the tentacles _and_ the core simultaneously. The Octo Core shorted out, indirectly giving us a warning that if it explodes now, not only would we die, the docking bay would also collapse. We ran quickly as we could, boarding one of the recon subs that remained undamaged. With only a minute to spare, we escaped to safety just before the Octo Core detonated in a huge explosion, completely barricading Erars Lake from the Bubble Hole.

[End BGM]

Relieved from the battle, we safely made our way through the lake, which used to be filled with hostile creatures during Cheerful White's quest on Primus Star until today. However, as soon as we made it to Primus Castle and disembarked from the recon sub, hordes of Duckers were there up front. Before we could react, they incapacitated us with electricity, intent on taking us prisoner...

TO BE CONTINUED...

* * *

Out of action for real, it's all up to the Contras' friends to save the Bacterion-infested Primus Star before the assimilation becomes permanent.


End file.
